Financial institutions, such as, for example, banks and/or credit card companies provide information to their customers regarding their spending. Such information can be in the form of, for example, monthly statements itemizing financial transactions, including, for example, purchases and returns. The information may also be provided on-demand based upon, for example, a customer inquiry through an appropriate interface. When storing and communicating aggregated results for multiple transactions, financial institutions may rely on automated systems to group transactions based on transaction categories such as, but not necessarily limited to, food, healthcare, groceries, sporting goods, dining, travel, etc.
The current techniques for transaction communication and categorization are prone to error and are difficult to apply across multiple financial institutions, which may use different phrases and/or word fragments to describe a given transaction.